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Minimum Hours for Freelance?

I have a freelance question.
I am about to do work for a very large corporation on a freelance/part time basis. The contact wants me to give him how many hours a job will take? I really don't like to give that since I am not sure. But I can say the job will be fairly simple. It's a Flash job and all I have to do is replace the dates in the Flash file.

Any suggestions on guessing how many hours a job will take? Also, do freelancers give a minimum hour rate? In other words they won't take on a job for less than 4 hours?

When working with freelancers I all ways require an estimate or cost for the job - so if it runs over it does not cost me, but if its done quicker yet still to the required standard, spec then then freelancer wins. Simple.

Its difficult to estimate the job as I don't know much in the way of details.

I would quote for the whole job - estimate the number of hours that you think the job will take, add margin and then add some time for unforeseen issue.

That advice will eliminate you from a lot of jobs! If you aren't sure about how long a job will take, take you best guess and provide it to the vendor as an estimate. Make clear the way you made the estimate, and the factors that might change the amount of time you need (i.e. constant changes or unforseen problems) then agree on a deal where you will do the job for x$/hr and the estimated hours will be y. If you have to go over, just bill them extra and you should be ok a long as everything is clear and expectations are set.

That advice will eliminate you from a lot of jobs! If you aren't sure about how long a job will take, take you best guess and provide it to the vendor as an estimate. Make clear the way you made the estimate, and the factors that might change the amount of time you need (i.e. constant changes or unforseen problems) then agree on a deal where you will do the job for x$/hr and the estimated hours will be y. If you have to go over, just bill them extra and you should be ok a long as everything is clear and expectations are set.

I think you misunderstood Dave. You can quote a job with an estimate and I didn't mean to imply differently.

IMO any one that is doing freelance should be able to estimate how long a particular job will take and quote accordingly.

When I quote a job, I tell the client that the quote is an estimate and if the job goes over the estimate they pay only that price. If the job comes in under, they pay for actual billable hours.

Whether quoting a fixed price or hourly, you should be able to come up with a number that the client can figure into his budget and a timeline that your client can depend on.

That's why I directed the OP to the Site Point Article... so that he learns that he can quote any job that's offered to him.

Linda Jenkinson"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown